Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com
Speaker 1: where smart Happens. Hi'm Marshall Brain with today's question, when
Speaker 1: did it get so complicated to pick a movie theater
Speaker 1: and what is next in the world of movie theater picking.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine invited me to go to a
Speaker 1: movie within this weekend. That sounds simple enough, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: And in the past it was simple. It used to
Speaker 1: be that you went down to the theater and you
Speaker 1: watched the movie. In the movie Back to the Future,
Speaker 1: you can see that world. That's a nineteen fifty five representation,
Speaker 1: and in that movie there is one movie theater in
Speaker 1: town and one movie playing at that movie theater. In
Speaker 1: the case of Back to the Future, the movie is
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan's Cattle Queen of Montana. So that idea, one
Speaker 1: theater in town, one movie playing. That's the movie you see.
Speaker 1: So it couldn't be simpler. Now, let's look at how
Speaker 1: things have morphed since then. In the United States, in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen sixties, the idea of a two screen
Speaker 1: theater took hold, so at least you had a little
Speaker 1: bit of choice when you went down to the theater. Then,
Speaker 1: during the nineteen seventies, the idea of a multiplex exploded.
Speaker 1: The number of screens per theater mushroomed into the teens
Speaker 1: and then the twenties. By the nineteen nineties, a single
Speaker 1: theater with thirty screens had been built. Then came things
Speaker 1: like Dolby and th X sound systems. If you wanted
Speaker 1: the best experience, you would only go to a certified theater.
Speaker 1: Then came stadium seating. You get a better view with
Speaker 1: the seats in a stadium configuration, and they're a lot
Speaker 1: more comfortable because they're usually padded and they have nice
Speaker 1: arm rests and so on. So now you wouldn't go
Speaker 1: to a theater unless it had th X and comfortable
Speaker 1: stadium seating. Then came digital projection. There's no more scratches
Speaker 1: on the film and no more weird stuff between reels.
Speaker 1: So that became a point that you wanted to have
Speaker 1: if you want to see a movie theater, you wanted
Speaker 1: th h X with a digital projector and stadium seating.
Speaker 1: And now there's three D projection. Some theaters have three
Speaker 1: D projectors, some don't, So if you want to see
Speaker 1: a movie in three D, you need to make sure
Speaker 1: the theater has a three D projector, and now now
Speaker 1: that three D option is morphed as well. There's actually
Speaker 1: three technologies that are used to display three D movies.
Speaker 1: So my friend wants to see the new film, and
Speaker 1: he sends this email which theater near you has three
Speaker 1: D digital projection? And I look up theaters in my
Speaker 1: area and one nearby is actually showing the movie he wants,
Speaker 1: with stadium seating on two separate screens using two different
Speaker 1: three D projection technology. The first is Imax three D
Speaker 1: and the second is Real D three D. So now
Speaker 1: the obvious question is which is better. If you've got
Speaker 1: a choice like that, how do you pick whether you
Speaker 1: want IMAX or real D. I jumped into Google to
Speaker 1: find a review, and the difference seems to be that
Speaker 1: IMAX three D is more of a pop out effect
Speaker 1: where stuff comes out of the screen towards you, and
Speaker 1: real D is a more subtle into the screen effect
Speaker 1: where you can actually see depth rather than being kind
Speaker 1: of shocked when things come out of the screen. Based
Speaker 1: on that review, we chose our show time so that
Speaker 1: we could see it in real D. So now the
Speaker 1: question is what is going to happen next. There's been
Speaker 1: all these different differentiators that have been built into the
Speaker 1: movie theater experience over the last couple of decades. Something
Speaker 1: is going to happen next. What might it be? Be
Speaker 1: sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from
Speaker 1: the Future Oin how Staffork staff as we explore the
Speaker 1: most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The hou stefforks
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